Warning about using PlaceActorAtMe

[WaxenFigure]

While playing with the Hentai Creatures mod to figure out why some NPCs got all the action and others were ignored I discovered that the creatures summoned using the spells in that mod looked like they were properly deleted but behind the scenes those creatures remained in existence and the hidden population of the cell they were in kept increasing the more creatures that were summoned and then subsequently banished (which performed a delete on those creatures).

 

 

The problem I found was that while the delete was run and did not error the creatures were never deleted and even waiting 30 days in game (and elsewhere in a different cell) upon return to that cell you'd find all those "deleted" creatures still present.

 

The cause it turns out is the PlaceActorAtMe call, it is similar to the PlaceAtMe call but doesn't have the additional options for a count of items, persistant flag and initially disabled flag.    The difference is that the PlaceActorAtMe defaults to one actor, persistant=true and initially disabled=false.

 

It's the "Persistant=true" flag that causes the problem, evidently the game will never delete an object marked "persistant".

 

Bottom line, never use PlaceActorAtMe for anything you don't want to be present in the game forever.  For creatures or NPCs that you want to go away when they die make sure you use the PlaceAtMe call instead.

[Guest Ragna_Rok]

for npcs using placeatme is not recommended.

 

go over "prid"

 

sources: uesp, and a crapload of facepalms.

[D_ManXX2]

yes it is always been like that placeatme causes save game bloat. it's been like that since oblivion. not sure about morrowind.

[kingkong]

to have the same effect as 'placeatme' and have less problemes you might use the 'moveto'

[Guest airdance]

I always thought that the "placeatme" command creates a dupilcate ever since I used it in Fallout NV.

 Another operation that will create a duplicate character is if you use the old "NPC editor" to create a character then try to improve that character using CK. 

[fejeena]

In Oblivion the "placeatme" command: WARNING: Overuse of the placeatme command may result in savegame bloating, which can lead to savegame corruption.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Console

 

All Vanilla and Lovers creatures summon spells use "placeatme". often use = savegame bloating.

 

And Skyrim: placeatme

Example: player.placeatme 000fea9b. Using this code will instantly summon an instance of an object or NPC at your position. The above example summons a dragon. Not recommended for named NPCs. This code uses the Object (base) ID and not specific reference ID as it is creating a new instance of that object/actor in the world; using it with named NPCs can result in duplicates unless the original was somehow removed.
Also see moveto which can summon named NPCs by refID using the following commands: prid RefID & moveto player

read http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Console

 

 

[gvman3670]

While playing with the Hentai Creatures mod to figure out why some NPCs got all the action and others were ignored I discovered that the creatures summoned using the spells in that mod looked like they were properly deleted but behind the scenes those creatures remained in existence and the hidden population of the cell they were in kept increasing the more creatures that were summoned and then subsequently banished (which performed a delete on those creatures).

 

 

The problem I found was that while the delete was run and did not error the creatures were never deleted and even waiting 30 days in game (and elsewhere in a different cell) upon return to that cell you'd find all those "deleted" creatures still present.

 

The cause it turns out is the PlaceActorAtMe call, it is similar to the PlaceAtMe call but doesn't have the additional options for a count of items, persistant flag and initially disabled flag.    The difference is that the PlaceActorAtMe defaults to one actor, persistant=true and initially disabled=false.

 

It's the "Persistant=true" flag that causes the problem, evidently the game will never delete an object marked "persistant".

 

Bottom line, never use PlaceActorAtMe for anything you don't want to be present in the game forever.  For creatures or NPCs that you want to go away when they die make sure you use the PlaceAtMe call instead.

 

I made the mistake a while back of using "placeatme" to put Nocturnal in my game. Never ever do that! I used AP's option of whoring out your companion to get them friendly and that kind of backfired. She ended up going bonkers, she was unkillable (even tried console commands to make her killable and to kill her), then she seemingly disappeared. At least until I was doing the Thieves Guild quests and she was waiting for me outside the Twilight Sepulcher!

 

So placeatme isn't always a safe option either.

[Brigade]

The devs were stupid enough to make a gameplay command with that buggy command? I was wondering why every conjurer I ever made ended up dying to save corruption.

[XunAmarox]

I use prid with the ref id then moveto player or player.moveto then the id, depending on which I want to do.